Increases of from 29 to 54 percent SDSU’s way to help ‘fund the department at championship levels’

It won’t cost as much as New Mexico or UNLV fans are paying to see their men’s basketball teams, but a trip to Viejas Arena next season got between 29 and 54 percent more expensive.

San Diego State athletic director Jim Sterk broadly hinted two months ago that he viewed season tickets at sold out Viejas Arena as a largely untapped revenue stream amid an economic downturn, and that became a reality Tuesday when season-ticket holders received word of the new pricing plans.

It came two days after SDSU was bounced from the NCAA Tournament by 15th-seeded Florida Gulf Coast, and it was accompanied by a letter from Associate Athletic Director Bob Moosbrugger that begins: “What a time to be an Aztec!”

Moosbrugger references the nine Mountain West titles won by SDSU in 2012 and says: “As an athletic department, our goal is to graduate student-athletes and win championships. To do this at a national level, SDSU Athletics must continue to examine ways to fund the department at championship levels.”

At the bottom of his letter is a pie chart showing how SDSU athletics is “funded,” with 41 percent of a $37 million annual budget coming from public sources: $9.6 million in student fees and $5.6 million from the school’s general fund. The men’s basketball program, according to the chart, produces just over $2 million in revenue, or about 6 percent.

Football season tickets also rose, although minimally in most sections. Season tickets for the six home games range from $66 to $360; last year they ranged from $66 to $345, although there were seven home games instead of the six scheduled for 2013.

The big jump came at Viejas Arena, which sold out three months before the first game. The cheapest plan, in the bench seats the rim the 12,414-seat arena, went from $99 to $150. The cheapest chair back area went from $130 to $200, a 54-percent increase.

Most areas carry a 30-percent bump. A sideline seat midway up went from $650 to $850, including a mandatory $300 “donation” to the Aztec Club. Over a 15-game home season, that computes to $56.67 per game.

Courtside seats went from $3,500 to $5,000, or $333 per game over a 15-game home season.

That still is far below what other high-profile Mountain West and California schools charge. At UNLV, that sideline seat midway up cost $1,505 this season; at New Mexico, $1,558; at Cal, $1,863; at UCLA, $3,598.

The athletic department did not issue a formal release about the ticket hikes, and Sterk was unavailable for comment.

“Our ticket prices are very low given that we’re a Top 25 program,” Sterk said in January. “We’re going to have to look at how we price tickets. I don’t want to gouge people. I don’t want to price us out of the market, but I’m going to have to look at (raising prices) going forward.”